Data Protection and your rights

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) governs the way in which personal data is collected, stored, processed and distributed.

We need to collect personal information about people we deal with in order to carry out council business and provide services. This includes customers, employees, suppliers and other business contacts.

We may be required to collect and use certain types of personal information to comply with the requirements of the law. No matter how data is collected, recorded and used (i.e. on a computer or on paper) this personal information must be dealt with properly to ensure compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) .

You can visit the Information Commissioner's Office website for more information. 

Your rights under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)

You have a right to access personal data that we may be processing about you, subject to certain exemptions. Requests for access to personal data are known as subject access requests

If you submit a subject access request to us, you are entitled to be told whether we hold any data about you. If we do, you also have the right:

  • To be given a description of the data, the purposes for which the data are being processed, and those to whom the data may have been disclosed;
  • To be given a copy of the data in an intelligible form, with any unintelligible terms explained;
  • To be provided with any information available to Oxford City Council about the source of the data; and
  • If you specifically request it, to be given an explanation as to how any decisions taken about you solely by automated means have been made.

These rights apply to electronic data, and to data in "manual" (i.e. non-electronic) formats subject to certain limitations.

If your request is for information other than information about yourself, such as information about decisions or actions by us, you cannot submit it as a subject access request.

See our Freedom of Information pages for details of how to find information using our Freedom of Information Publication scheme, and how to submit a Freedom of Information request.